Vitals

Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder, scrappy Harlan County criminal chieftain

Harlan County, Kentucky, Fall 2012

Series: Justified
Episode: “Kin” (Episode 4.05)
Air Date: February 5, 2013
Director: Peter Werner
Costume Designer: Patia Prouty

Background

For great fall attire, one needs look no further than Justified on FX. The show’s pragmatic anti-hero, Boyd Crowder, came a long way from being the thuggish white supremacist bank robber we met back in the pilot. By the middle of the fourth season, he’s shaping up his own criminal empire in Harlan County and enjoying a romance with his deceased older brother’s widow. (It should be noted that said widow had actually shot his older brother to death with a shotgun… Boyd is evidently the forgiving type.)

With his character transformation came a major costuming transformation. Boyd can’t be pigeon-holed into a particular stratum of the criminal underworld, and his wardrobe reflects that. He needs to look respectable enough for urban mobsters like Wynn Duffy while still keeping in touch with the good ol’ boys under his employ. The result is a mishmash of rustic formality that suits Boyd’s particular brand of dapper style.

“Kin” is set in the middle of Justified‘s strong fourth season, when most of the county is searching for the enigmatic Drew Thompson without realizing he is right under their nose. When Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens heads into the hills on his search for Drew, he finds that his sometime-nemesis Boyd has the same goal.

What’d He Wear?

In “Kin”, Boyd Crowder wears a very unique garment that appears to be a cross between a sportcoat and a cardigan. It’s definitely not the plain gray wool cardigan he wore in the third season, and it’s certainly different from the rest of his sportcoats in their various shades of gray.

Although cut like a sportcoat, the distinctive shawl lapels are unlike anything I’ve ever seen on a traditional sportcoat. The collar portion of the lapel around the back of the neck is the same herringbone tweed as the rest of the coat, but the front facings of the shawl lapels are ribbed like a cardigan sweater.

Based on this combination, I think the best description of Boyd’s unique garment would be to call it a “sweater sportcoat”. He wears a genuine sweater-coat on many other occasions over the last few seasons, but the structure of this coat differentiates it from an actual sweater-coat.

Update! Blog commenter RM tracked down this jacket, and it appears to definitively be a Ted Baker “Ananic” jacket, described as “a rib-knit shawl collar updates a handsome three-button blazer rendered in a fine, two-tone herringbone weave” at the Nordstrom site, one of the few places I could find the jacket still posted (albeit currently unavailable).

The jacket is primarily gray woven herringbone tweed, cut like a single-breasted sportcoat with three brown horn buttons down the front. It has natural shoulders and roped sleeveheads. According to the Nordstrom description of the Ted Baker jacket, the construction is a wool/polyamide blend.

In addition to the welted breast pocket, Boyd’s coat has flapped hip pockets that slant toward the back. The jetting on the hip pockets is charcoal.

The inside front panels are lined in gray silk with a faint pattern of white dots; the back of the coat is lined with burgundy silk. There is a jetted inside pocket on each side of the gray silk lined portions of the coat.

Underneath, Boyd wears very similar attire as seen two episodes earlier in “Truth and Consequences” (4.03). He sports one of his many dark vests that become part of his “uniform” in the show’s latter seasons. In this case, it is a black flannel waistcoat with a single-breasted 5-button front – leaving the lowest button undone over the notched bottom – and slim fishmouth notch lapels.

There are four jetted pockets – two on each side of the chest. Boyd keeps his silver-toned brass Gotham pocketwatch in the lower right pocket of the vest, attached to a silver fob on a curb chain that loops through the fourth buttonhole. The quartz watch’s tetradecagon-shaped case has an open silver dial with black Roman numerals and a date window at 6:00.

He doesn’t remove the coat in “Kin”, but “Truth and Consequences” gives us a better look at the vest on its own. Unlike some vests, the lapels are fully functional and extend all around the neck rather than stopping at the shoulders. A thin strip of the same flannel fabric extends down the sides of the vest, but most of the back is lined in dark gray silk.

In “Kin”, Boyd wears a dark charcoal cotton work shirt with a subtle tonal overplaid. The point collar is buttoned to his throat, as usual, with black buttons down the front placket. Each of the cuffs also closes with a single black button.

Most men in Harlan County seem to own nothing but jeans, with the two dueling leads Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder proving to be no exception. However, Boyd is the darker yin to Raylan’s yang, evident in the black denim jeans that he wears on a daily basis. According to The Americanologists, Boyd wears imogene + willie “Barton” slim fit, low rise jeans with bronze buttons and rivets.

Boyd’s jeans have a straight fit through the leg, giving the already slim Walton Goggins an even scrappier look. The bottoms of his jeans are cuffed over the ankles.

Boyd wears a distressed brown leather belt with a tarnished brass single-claw buckle. He notably uses it in “Truth and Consequences” to give the snake-bitten Jimmy something to bite on.

Boyd follows the oldest rule in the sartorial book by sporting a pair of old brown leather work boots that lace up the front, a callback to his days as a miner.

Boyd’s boots have heavy soles and four brass eyelets visible below the cuffs of his jeans.

How to Get the Look

Boyd Crowder is a wily, outspoken individualist who deals with all strata of society. As he grows as a person – and as a criminal – his wardrobe reflects his personality and his position more and more, with unique garments like the sweater-ish shawl-lapeled sportcoat.

• Gray herringbone tweed Ted Baker “Ananic” sportcoat with ribbed cardigan-style shawl lapels, 3-button front, welted breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets, and gray-to-burgundy silk lining
• Dark charcoal tonal plaid cotton work shirt with point collar, front placket with black buttons, and button cuffs
• Black flannel single-breasted vest with slim fishmouth notch lapels, 5-button front, four jetted pockets, and notched bottom
• Black denim slim fit jeans
• Brown distressed leather belt with squared brass single-claw buckle
• Brown leather front-laced work boots with brass eyelets and heavy soles
• Gotham quartz pocketwatch in silver-toned brass case (with open silver face, Roman numerals, and 6:00 date window) on silver metal curb chain connected to silver-toned round fob

Thanks again to commenter ‘RM’ for identifying Boyd’s Ted Baker jacket. Who knew that the wily blue-collar criminal had such luxurious fashion taste?

The Gun

Boyd cycles through many different weapons throughout Justified, but the most consistent favorite of his is the classic 9mm Beretta 92FS semi-automatic pistol, as seen in “Kin”.

The Beretta was adopted as the M9 by the U.S. military in 1985; as a war veteran, Boyd would be quite familiar with the M9 and thus pretty comfortable keeping the Beretta as his sidearm of choice.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the entire series. This outfit comes from the fourth season, particularly the fifth episode “Kin” (and partially the third episode “Truth and Consequences”).

You can also help out the blog (and our helpful commenter ‘RM’) by hunting down the exact brand and style of Boyd’s trusty boots.

The Quote

Whole world’s a tree, Raylan. I’m just a squirrel trying to get a nut.